Tucker Carlson calls Christian Zionism ‘brain virus & heresy’ during interview with avowed antisemite Fuentes

Former Fox News host and analyst Tucker Carlson continued his descent into rank antisemitism on Tuesday, publishing an interview with far-right podcaster Nick Fuentes, who has engaged in open holocaust denial and praised Hitler in the past.

Despite former disagreements between them, Carlson and Fuentes bonded over their shared suspicion of “these Jews,” as well as their distaste for Christian Zionism and its supporters among the Republican Party.

The self-identified lapsed Episcopalian Carlson lauded Fuentes for his criticism of Israel and U.S. support for it, “because it’s insane and it hurts us. We get nothing out of it. I completely agree with you there.”

He went on to blast Christian Zionists who he said were “seized by this brain virus,” listing figures like Mike Huckabee, Ted Cruz, John Bolton, George W. Bush and Carl Rove.

“Christian Zionists – like what is that? … I dislike them more than anybody, you know, because it’s Christian heresy and I’m offended by that as a Christian,” Carlson declared in the interview.

Tucker Carlson tells Nick Fuentes he despises Christian Zionists more than anyone on earth, calling Christian Zionism a dangerous heresy within Christianity.

He names Mike Huckabee, Ted Cruz, John Bolton, Karl Rove, and George W. Bush as examples.

Carlson says Christian Zionism… pic.twitter.com/741M5Tuvbj

— Shadow of Ezra (@ShadowofEzra) October 28, 2025

“If you wake up in the morning and decide that your Christian faith means you have to support whatever the Israeli government does, that's not Christianity – that's something else.”

Huckabee responded to clip from the interview, writing on 𝕏 that he “Wasn’t aware that Tucker despises me. I do get that a lot from people not familiar with the Bible or history. Somehow I will survive the animosity.”

Senator Cruz commented, “It’s remarkable, and sad, watching Tucker turn into Nick Fuentes.” Cruz had defended U.S. support for Israel in a notably hostile interview with Carlson earlier this year.

The interview with Fuentes drew strong criticism from several popular Republican voices.

Conservative author Dinesh D’Souza wrote, “I debated Nick Fuentes because the two of us strongly disagree. We are not on the same side. Tucker did a friendly, almost devotional interview with Nick because the two of them are on the same side.”

I’m posting two text exchanges with Charlie Kirk where he calls Nick Fuentes “vermin” and insists even my debating him and defeating his arguments nevertheless amplifies him. One can only imagine what Charlie would say about Tucker’s butt-licking interview with Fuentes pic.twitter.com/gJXf5E5dT1

— Dinesh D'Souza (@DineshDSouza) October 28, 2025

Orthodox Christian author Rod Dreher, who said he had considered Carlson a friend, wrote on his Substack blog that “this was a bright red line that I was hoping Tucker would not cross. But cross it he did… Total softball interview, entirely sympathetic. Shockingly so.”

“Tucker asked nothing about Fuentes’s past statements praising Hitler, or any number of horrific things that have come out of that kid’s mouth, (e.g., ‘We will make Jews die in the holy war.’).”

“Carlson has, by this squishy-soft interview, introduced Fuentes into the right-wing mainstream. It is legit freaky that we have reached this point in American life. It is, in fact, Weimar America time,” Dreher concluded.

Author Eric Metaxas argued, “What's really going on is that we are seeing Satan trying to push Christian faith out of the MAGA movement. Those who love Jesus love the Jews. Read my Bonhoeffer book on that. Let's pray Tucker repents of this grievous misstep.”

Despite Fuentes’ well-known admiration for Nazi leader Adolf Hitler, Carlson cautiously pushed back against his type of overt Jew-hatred, claiming he is “not that interested in ‘the Jews,’ but I am very interested in the foreign policy question.”

Tucker when a liberal disagrees with rightists: THESE ARE SICK PEOPLE WHO WANT YOU DEAD

Tucker when told by Nick Fuentes that he likes Stalin: Interesting perspective. Let’s circle back to that. pic.twitter.com/pNaszo2tss

— Richard Hanania (@RichardHanania) October 28, 2025

“The second you’re like, ‘Well, actually, it’s the Jews,’ first of all, it’s against my Christian faith. Like, I just don’t believe that, and I never will. Period,” he said.

Carlson explained that his aversion to Christian Zionism began around 2003, when he became “pissed at the neocons [Neoconservatives]” allegedly driving U.S. foreign policy by instigating the Iraq War.

Fuentes explained that in his opinion, “neoconservatism arises from Jewish leftists who are mugged by reality when they saw the surprise attack during the Yom Kippur War.”

“As far as the Jews are concerned, you cannot actually divorce Israel and the neocons and all those things that you talk about from Jewishness: ethnicity, religion, identity,” Fuentes told Carlson.

Among his opponents on the right, Fuentes sees “Jewishness as the common denominator,” he said.

“They’re a stateless people. They’re unassimilable. They resist assimilation for thousands of years. And I think that’s a good thing. And now they have this territory in Israel. There’s a deep religious affection for the state. It’s bound up in their identity.”

“If you are a Jewish person in America, it’s sort of rational self-interest, politically, to say, ‘I am a minority. I am a religious, ethnic minority. This is not really my home. My ancestral home is in Israel,'” Fuentes said.

Despite being a major force on the (online) right wing and having once dined with the president, Fuentes and his “groyper” movement have notably turned against the MAGA movement and President Donald Trump.

In the interview, Fuentes attacked fellow antisemite and GOP Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, whom Carlson praised in this interview, as well as the director of the National Counterterrorism Center, Joe Kent.

He alleged they had betrayed the core ideals of the “America First” movement, which he claims to uphold.

In the past, Fuentes also criticized Vice President JD Vance as “the end state of Trumpism, a complete fabrication who was created in a lab by Peter Thiel,” and said he will urge his supporters to “either stay home or vote for a protest candidate” if Vance runs on the Republican presidential ticket in 2028.

This had caused Carlson to attack Fuentes, suggesting he was a federal agent running a “psyop” against conservatives and calling him a “weird little gay kid in his basement.”

However, Tuesday’s interview apparently served to settle the dispute between the two, with Carlson nudging the once-radioactive Fuentes further into the conservative mainstream.

“I’m sorry I called you gay, by the way, but I’m always, I think I’m just too old or something. I’m like, ‘Why [isn’t] anyone married?’,” Carlson said.

Author Rod Dreher concluded, “The fact that Tucker Carlson, the most influential right-wing media figure in America, went from dismissing Fuentes early this year as a gay twerp in a Chicago basement, to having him on his show and blessing him with a soft interview, is a sign of the times. And not a good one.”